Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Writer’s block affects many, so I will use that excuse since
I have none other to explain my absence of too many months.

My writing desert evaporated with a random purchase of the New York Times on Nov. 27 and reading a measured,
delicate and insightful review by Nate Chinen of saxophonist Jimmy Greene’s new
album Beautiful Life. Greene’s six-year-old
daughter, Ana Marquez-Greene, was a victim of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The recording is Green’s very personal
tribute to her.

After an initial cursory scanning of the NYT’s article, I found myself tearing up.
And I then thought of my unfinished blog written on Virgin America flight 23
from JFK to SFO on Dec. 14, 2012. I, like other captive travelers,
watched in horrified silence as the Sandy Hook
massacre unfolded before us.

Although I had worked with the copy for almost a month, I
was not satisfied; the content didn’t hang together, and the title wasn’t right!
What did work was the Virgin purple
photo of an empty cabin with row after row of flickering seat-back TV screens.

Now this beautiful album by Jimmy Greene appears: a collection
of music and song (one an audio clip of Ana singing a hymn with her brother) that
gives a lasting and positive visual of a horrible day.

Words sometimes fail, but music rarely does—and this album
captures the life, specialness and beauty of a six year old who was dearly
loved by her family and friends and taken away too soon. With his album Beautiful Life, Jimmy Greene, shows how
Ana lived her life, not how she died. Through music and song the visual memory
succeeds.

The images of a horrible day shared with the passengers of
Virgin Flight 23 have evaporated and been replaced with a smiling and adoring
Ana with her hands clasped in her father’s tender embrace.